My Students’ Blog

Body Budgeting 101

By Miley B.

Have you ever reacted to a situation in a dramatically, maybe even uncommon way for you, and immediately felt the guilt afterwards? This is actually common, and you are not alone. There are things you can do to prevent this and there are many outside factors that affect this that you may not be aware of. Perhaps your body budget was low, therefore triggering a disproportionate reaction. With insight and an outlook for growth, you can learn how to master this skill, and, in turn, guarantee bodily and social health.

But now you may be wondering what exactly is your body budget. “Body budget” is a concept introduced by neuroscientist and psychologist Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett. It’s basically your body’s ingrained amount of energy it’s able to expel based on your mood. The control center, your brain, has the responsibility to allocate that energy. Overdrafts, such as chronic stress, poor sleep, and inadequate nutrition, can create a disruption to where exactly that energy should be allocated. In addition, bigger emotions such as anger and fear take up more energy. Without an equilibrium state, your body is likely experiencing a depleted body budget because your energy isn’t being organized properly. This results in emotional dysregulation, fatigue, and illness. Click here for more info.

Enough with the science of the topic. Now, you might ask, how do I prevent this? Well, first of all, reflecting, being resilient, and working on your overall health is essential. Build a stable foundation for yourself by managing your stress effectively, and having a healthy social life. It’s important to understand how your physical budget influences your emotions. When you are at a low body budget, your brain may draw wrong conclusions and issue an emotional reaction that’s not suitable for the situation. Being “hangry” is a great example of this. You’ll notice people to be more short-tempered when they are hungry or tired. A remedy for this is pretty straightforward, eat food that gives you the required nutrients needed and sleep a good amount of hours. 

On top of managing your stress, it’s important to differentiate eustress from distress. Eustress is the healthier kind of stress, while distress is the unhealthy kind. When you’re experiencing distress, your energy budget gets tighter, this in turn makes you live in survival mode. This can also relate to when you are working with a team. It’s important to expel energy wisely and recognize the difference between energizing challenges and draining overload. Overall sustainable motivation is affected, and you should know how to manage the little things that result into bigger things. 

Another great focus area to conserving your body budget, is having healthy interpersonal relationships. We are social beings, so keeping that area strong is great! Even small everyday interactions can improve emotional health and give you a sense of fulfillment. Having a sense of community can give a sense of belonging which gives warmth and energy into your body budget. It can replenish the negative with positive. Interestingly, having strength in this area reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease, therefore giving a longer life expectancy. To really build better social connections, it is important to focus more on the quality over quantity. Like participating in group activities, volunteering or local events, enhances your sense of belonging and strengthens social ties.

If people really took a step back, understood the roots of emotional problems, they could seriously change their lives.

Now to a real-word example: CaseyTaylor, the athletic director of Mossyrock High School, knows a lot about this subject. He says when people have irregular responses, or, in better words, aren’t being themselves, its a sign their body budget is low. Noticing when others get in that state is also healthy because you can contribute to them getting out of that state. He pointed out that Mossyrock has a strong staff, meaning they are connected well and are able to provide support when needed. He used an analogy when two people are experiencing conflict. He said that they generally live in a black and white, win or lose state during those times. For him, to maintain emotional stability is staying in the grey area that notices the black and white perspectives. In his real life, prolonged stress, exhaustion, or conflict, really affects his sleep. Essentially his thoughts spiral, he doesn’t feel well rested the next day, and in turn his body budget is low. Noticing this has helped him understand his own body budget and figure out ways to better support himself.

If people really took a step back, understood the roots of emotional problems, they could seriously change their lives. They need essential skills, like strong interpersonal relationships, reserving body budget energy by replenishing it, going on walks, and staying healthy mentally and physically. These are all really great areas to start working on. It’s a construction site being built. By listening to your body, doing the necessary skills to stay healthy, you and others can have a healthy relationship with each other’s body budgets.